Curious about consumption

girl_brett

I know when you enter your food, or add a recipe you enter what you've used in the item if you've made it. Like for example, marinades, cereal and such. I was just thinking that the calories probably are not so accurate since we don't ingest all of it. When I make my cereal (unless it's GrapeNuts cause that absorbs everything) there is still milk in the bowl that I don't slurp down, or If I make a recipe that has me marinate something, I just marinate and then disgard the remaining, or if I have a vinagerette dressing, there is always left over in the dish. I'm just curious if people take that into consideration and try and log as accurate as possible or just count everything which is in the item? I log it all, but I just thought about this. Either way it would be a bonus of unused calories especially if you've been over for the day.

amuhlou

with most things, I don't take it into consideration just count them as bonus padding calories.

With my cereal though, I only add a tiny bit of milk to start - like 1/4 cup milk to a normal 1 cup serving of cereal. I hate soggy cereal so that's plenty of milk for me and that way I finish all the milk and can log it precisely.

bizco

I log everything. Better to overestimate calories than to underestimate. The exception might be marinade since you do end up throwing away much of it. In that case, I would probably enter the ingredients in half-portions or thirds.

kaymd

I totally thought about this myself. I just log that I ate everything :ohwell:

frogmommy

With marinade, an easy way to get a feel is to measure prior to adding, then measure the remaining marinade that doesn't soak in.

Adsnwfld

Just log everything, that way you don't wonder why you are not losing at a rate you would expect. If you don't end up eating those few calories you'll just lose quicker, and who doesn't want that.

hummzz

I count it all unless I only eat a significant amount less than logged. Lets say I make a sandwich and only end up eating half of it. I'll only log half, but for left over milk or dressing I think that would be so minuscule that it will only be cushion for something that may not be so accurate.

girl_brett

Yes I log it all! The good, the bad and the ugly! LOL But I think some things can make a difference! I just look at it as a cushion but it definately is something to think about!

amyoliver85

You need to count all of the calories.

While you may have some leftover marinade in the dish, that doesn't mean that your food didn't suck up most of the flavor and with it, the calories. It just means that there was some leftover liquid that it couldn't hold onto. When you are marinating (yes, even "marinating" your cereal in milk) there is no 100% accurate way to measure every calorie that actually makes it to your body and this is because when something goes in, something also comes out.

When you finish a bowl of cereal, how will you measure the crumbs of the cereal that you don't eat?

The best solution is to always overestimate your calories and underestimate exercise (unless you have an hrm).

Pandorian

I just don't bother with marinating items! Just took my chicken thighs out of the oven, absolutely plain, right from the package to the oven.

IF I were to marinate something I'd base it on the amount I made and not even pay attention to how much is being tossed, I'd rather over-estimate my caloric intake.